Turning plastic waste into building bricks 

For her Master’s project in civil engineering, Selina Heiniger took on a challenge that’s aligned with her desire to help preserve the environment. She’s developing a new building material that’s made from plastic waste, concrete and terracotta.
She therefore worked on developing bricks made of recovered plastic - polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) - along with crushed terracotta brick and recycled concrete. Her bricks are designed to interlock so that no mortar is required. Initial tests are encouraging, but the invention is in the prototype stage so there are still some issues to be resolved. Heiniger’s work nevertheless stands to deliver significant benefits in shrinking the construction industry’s carbon footprint.
Full article: actu.epfl.ch/news/turning-pla...
Structural Xploration Lab (SXL) : www.epfl.ch/labs/sxl
Laboratory for Processing of Advanced Composites (LPAC): www.epfl.ch/labs/lpac/
EPFL: www.epfl.ch/
#CivilEngineering #Sustainability

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